A morning walk at the Palo Alto National Battlefield.
Shortly after the admission of Texas as a state, there was a confrontation here in 1846 between the U.S. Army and the Mexican Army to settle the border dispute between the two countries and set the Rio Grande River as the agreed-upon border, and not the Nueces River which runs through Corpus Christi much farther north. (The U.S. Army won, so where Judy and I live now is the United States and not Mexico, even though Mexico was here first.)
There are four species of sparrow that live here, and all like to hide in the grass; little brown birds that are very hard to see. I got here early this morning to have the best chance of hearing the birds. They’re hard to see, but easier to hear, and as a general rule, birds tend to be a lot more talkative before 9:00am than after. This year we’ve seen the Lark and Olive sparrows already, so those weren’t target birds. The two birds I was after, the Botteri’s Sparrow and the Cassin’s Sparrow were both in full voice. Part of one bird’s song, for me, is reminiscent of the two-note song of a chickadee, so that bird was easy to identify. The other has an accelerating sound like a bouncing marble dropped on a hard surface; like an olive sparrow, but a little faster and higher pitched. A good use of time this Saturday morning. Two new birds for the year, and only an hour away. We hit the target. 400!
Now, I wonder which bird should be number 401…